Oregon University System > State Board > Working Groups > Pnc

Student Participation and Completion Committee

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Goal:

The Committee charge is to develop strategies to improve participation, retention and success in postsecondary education of all Oregon students, with special focus on the needs of underserved populations throughout the state. The work of the Committee will directly address Oregon’s levels of freshman participation and completion to college graduation in the short and long term.

Background:

In March, 2007, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education finalized its Strategic Plan: an Investment in Oregonians for Our Future: a Plan to 2025 for the Oregon University System. One great concern was that while Oregon’s population is growing robustly, the state’s university system has witnessed a declining percentage of Oregon graduating high school students attending Oregon’s public universities, from 24.1% in 2001-02, to a flat 20% in 2006-07. Furthermore, college retention rates were starting to decline after years of improvement. 

In June of 2007, the Board launched an effort to identify strategies to reverse these troubling trends and to improve college participation & completion at Oregon’s public universities. The Student Participation and Completion Subcommittee convened under the leadership of Board member Dalton Miller-Jones, Chair of Black Studies and Psychology Professor at Portland State University, and launched an expansive, fast-paced agenda of public outreach and research in 2007. The subcommittee aimed to address barriers to college participation and retention in Oregon postsecondary education in general, but also to identify the needs of “underserved” populations, in an effort to resolve clear educational disparities among Oregon’s citizens by ethnicity, geographic area, economic background, and other factors.

The Student Participation and Completion Committee provided a report to the Board of Higher Education in December, 2007. The Board prioritized the work of the subcommittee by naming its goals among the priority items for focus and for charging the work to a standing committee of the Board. The Committee for Student Participation and Completion first convened in February 2008.

Featured Documents:

• An Investment in Oregonians for Our Future, Oregon State Board of Higher Education Strategic Plan, March 2007
• Coming soon: Report of the Student Participation and Completion Subcommittee, 2007

Scope of Work 2008-09:

The committee will develop, propose, and advocate for action items that will significantly affect student participation, retention, and success rates in the OUS system in the next 2-5 years, and to develop a framework to build in these short-term gains in order to ensure long-term improvements in these areas. The current committee terms will extend approximately through the 2009 legislative session. The scope of the Student Participation and Completion Committee’s work for 2008-09 is to:

• Continue and expand the work of the Student Participation & Completion Subcommittee to identify, analyze, and evaluate barriers to student participation & completion for underserved populations, including analysis of the OUS Diversity Report and other applicable research;
• Identify, analyze, develop, and implement potential initiatives, programs, best practices, and policies that directly effect student participation and completion; 
• Propose to the State Board of Higher Education legislative Policy Option Packages and initiatives that would significantly affect student participation and completion in postsecondary education;
• Advocate for legislative Policy Option Packages and other committee initiatives to key stakeholders, including campus and student organizations, state legislators, the public, community and business organizations, and foundations;
• Review and evaluate Policy Option Packages from other committees of the Board to analyze their relation to the recommendations of the Committee;  
• Expand outreach and research efforts begun by the Student Participation & Completion Subcommittee, including continuation of panel meetings and statewide symposium, to inform and involve community stakeholders on Committee efforts, and to continue to receive the input from underserved populations that is critical to the success of the initiatives; and
• Develop a framework to address, monitor, and report back based on performance indicators to appropriate authorities on a long-term basis the student participation and completion for all Oregonians in postsecondary education, with special attention to underserved populations.

Meeting Dates:

The committee meets on a monthly basis. Click here for State Board of Higher Education public notices of meeting dates and locations.

Meeting Notes:

• March 21, 2008, coming soon
• February 25, 2008

Contacts:

For questions, contact Diane Saunders, Director of Communications for OUS and lead staff to the committee at Diane_Saunders@ous.edu, or Endi Hartigan, Communications Associate, at Endi_Hartigan@ous.edu.